The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Generally, an ice maker has a structure manufacturing ice by cooling water supplied from a water storage unit using an evaporator, separating ice manufactured from an ice making portion, and then dropping ice.
FIG. 1 is a front view of a conventional ice maker and FIG. 2 is a detailed view showing an ice making portion and a water/ice separating portion of a conventional ice maker.
In detail, referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a water storage 2 is disposed below the ice making portion 1, an ice storage 3 is disposed at a side surface of the water storage 2, and a mechanical unit 4 is disposed at a side surface of the ice making portion 1.
Here, separated ice and water flowing on a surface of an evaporator 6 are dropped together from the ice making portion 1, so the water/ice separating portion 7 is disposed below the ice making portion 1 so as to drop water into the water storage 2 and to move ice into the ice storage 3.
That is, water dropped from the ice making portion 1 flows into the water storage 2 again and is resupplied into the ice making portion 1 for manufacturing ice. In the meanwhile, ice dropped from the ice making portion 1 moves into the ice storage 3 through the chute 5.
However, water dropped from the ice making portion 1 collides with the water/ice separating portion 7 and splashes to the ice storage 3 such that water splashes to outside.
Thus, ice output per amount of supplied ice-making water, which is an index to evaluate performance of an ice maker, is reduced such that efficiency of the ice maker decreases, and ice in the ice storage is melted by introduced water.
The foregoing is intended merely to aid in the understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and is not intended to mean that the present disclosure falls within the purview of the related art that is already known to those skilled in the art.